SUMMARY: "Sara" died June 18, 1972 from a legal abortion performed in New York.
"Sara" Roe is one of the women Life Dynamics notes on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legalized abortion.
Sara took advantage of New York state's legalization of abortion, and underwent a second trimester abortion in New York City in May of 1972. She was 18 weeks pregnant.
She had problems with retained tissue, so three weeks after the abortion she had a D&C to remove the tissue.
Sara had developed infection from the retained tissue, and on June 18, 1972, the infection took her life. She left one child motherless.
The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to "Sara," these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:
"Judy" Roe, July, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
"Linda Michelle Hoffman", September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
"Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.
Sources: "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 – June 30, 1972," Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 323.
"Sara" Roe is one of the women Life Dynamics notes on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legalized abortion.
Sara took advantage of New York state's legalization of abortion, and underwent a second trimester abortion in New York City in May of 1972. She was 18 weeks pregnant.
She had problems with retained tissue, so three weeks after the abortion she had a D&C to remove the tissue.
Sara had developed infection from the retained tissue, and on June 18, 1972, the infection took her life. She left one child motherless.
The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to "Sara," these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:
As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.
Sources: "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 – June 30, 1972," Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 323.